A game of tag
by herochan1313
Summary: The midnight channel, alongside the enigma Joker, have returned and stolen nearly all the Persona users. Now it's up to Naoto Shirogane, alongside the devil summoner Raidou and devil survior Atsuro, to stop this madness. But can they find the answer to the riddle of Joker in time to save the Persona users from shadow?


**I decided to write this after thinking about how some of the other SMT series don't get much love. As always I don't own Persona, SMT devil **

**survivor, SMT devil summoner, Or SMT nocturne.**

* * *

Naoto Shirogane arrived in Sumaru city with a look of determination, and knowing Inaba's detective prince meant that she was serious. She was in this city

for a new case, one that was extremely dangerous. A year ago she and her friends had solved a case dipped in the supernatural when an urban legend "the

midnight channel" led to a string of murders. After the case was solved Naoto assumed that was the end, but a few months later it returned and tricked her

friends into fighting one another. They'd solved that case as well….but now the midnight channel had returned again, and her friends had gone missing. Not

just them, several other Persona users from Tatsumi Port Island and Sumaru had also vanished with the channel's return. To make matters worse, a local

detective of Sumaru had informed her that the strange enigma that had once plagued this city was also causing havoc. The enigma was known as Joker, a

demonic "man" that lied to people about granting them their desires. Only instead it drained those dreams and turned the victims into Shadow selves, pale

shadows of what they once were. The local detective had requested her assistance (along with two others) in order to get to the bottom of this. When Naoto

arrived at the Kuzunoha detective agency, she was met by five others. Three of them were the proprietors of the office; chief Todoroki, and his two

assistances. The chief was a rather big msn, who was something called a "Devil summoner", but they weren't the only ones here. On a couch before Naoto,

sat two young men who were chatting and drinking soda. One had a bit of a royal air about him, wore a foreign student uniform with pointed shoes and a

cap. He had a katana and pistol on his person along with several strange tubes. The other boy was around the same age; had short black hair topped with a

white hat, blue hoodie and grey pants, and was fiddling with a laptop. Chief Todoroki noticed Naoto's arrival and without hesitating introduced her.

"Ah miss Shirogane! I had hoped you'd come to assist us! Allow me to introduce these two: fellow Devil summoner Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV, and Devil

survivor Atsuro Kitahara!"

Naoto recognized Raidou as another infamous detective, yet she didn't know what they meant by Devil summoner/survivor. Sensing her confusion, Raidou

explained.

"I am part of a long line of people who summon demons of old to aid in keeping their existence a secret. As for Atsuro he uses some DS looking thing to

summon them too, and he survived some doomsday or something."

Atsuro wanted to remark at that, yet he was cut off by the Chief who got to the point.

"Anyway Miss Naoto, I assume you know why you are here?"

"Yes, in regards to the midnight channel and this "Joker" correct?"

She responded at once, and noticed Raidou nodding in approval. She nearly blushed at that, but held her ground and listened to the chief.

"Correct. Somehow Joker has returned despite being defeated by my allies who wielded Personas. He's using the Midnight channel to further drain people's

dreams, and to make matters worse he's also used "games" on your friends. "

She tensed up at that but yet again regained her composer as the chief resumed.

" These "Games" were incredibly cruel with rules that if broken turned the players into shadow selves. Sadly, all of the missing Persona users fell victim to his

game of "shadow tag" and have been reverted into "reverse Persona users". So, not only do we have to find out how the channel has returned, but we must

free the trapped Persona users."

Naoto clutched her hands in anger at the thought of her friends being turned into shadows, yet she gasped when she saw Raidou place a gentle hand on her.

"Don't worry Miss Shirogane. I promise to help you find your friends in the name of justice! Atsuro too!"

Atsuro argued at that, but ultimately agreed to help out. One of the chief's assistants then brought in a new HD TV, something that made Naoto feel

Nostalgic.

* * *

Raidou took over for the chief in explain their game plan, which was rather crazy.

"Our basic plan is to go inside the world within the TV like you did last year, unfortunely that's not all we have to do. Due to Joker's influence, some of the

Shadows and even a few demons are staying into the city. So while our main priority is to enter the TV, sometimes we'll have to venture into the city at a

certain time to fight."

It sounded easy enough to Naoto, but she still had a few questions.

"How will you two fight? I can see Raidou has weapons, but what about a Persona?"

Raidou grinned at that and motioned to the several dozen tubes on his chest.

"These little tubes allow me to summon demons to give me an edge. Think of them as a Persona of sorts. As for Atsuro …"

Atsuro himself fielded that as he held up a strange DS like device.

"This is my COMP; it used to be able to let me summon demons too. But even since I survived it's been iffy. I can still summon demons, but sometimes it

won't work. And since I'm needed here for Intel I can't go in with you guys."

He then turned his COMP on and pointed it at the TV as he resumed.

"But thanks to a little jury-rigging I found an "avatar" based off this half-demon kid that can act as me."

He then hit a few buttons on the COMP and a person appeared on the TV. It looked like a normal teen boy, but he wore no shirt and had strange green tattoo

like lines on his body. With all that said and done, Naoto wanted to start right away, but Raidou held her back.

"Whoa Miss Shiro! I like a feisty girl and all, but we need to wait on my partner before we go in!"

Naoto finally blushed at his words, but hid her face as she asked,

"Your partner? But as I recall you never had a partner in any of your detective Narumi was a bit of a... gloryhog."

Raidou clapped his hands and seemed pleased at her words.

"I can tell you're a fan of my work Miss Shiro, but my partner is related to my demon summoning job."

As if to acknowledge this, the window behind Chief Todoroki was tapped by a strange black cat. The window was opened and to Naoto's surprise the Cat

began to talk to her in a very smart-alecy way.

"This is the detective prince Raidou? I was expecting some old geezer, not a kid!"

Naoto was too flabbergasted to respond to the fact that she'd been insulted, but Raidou smacked the cat and said.

"Hey watch your tongue Gouto! She's helping us with the case! Anyway, did you find out anything?"

The cat, Gouto, scoffed and replied.

"No, I came back to see that radiant smile of yours, of course I did! All I found though was something about crystal skulls inside the TV."

With that the trio began to enter the TV, after Naoto got over the talking cat, with Atsuro saying.

"Good luck in there Rai and Nao!"

Much to the chagrin of his partners. When those two entered the TV, Gouto laid down next to Atsuro and said.

"Hey geek! Instead of pretending to help, why not pour me a saucer of that soda!"

Atsuro smirked and began to do that as he said.

"You're lucky I find you pretty cool Gouto."

* * *

Once inside the TV, Naoto was saddened to see that it had reverted into the foggy wasteland she had first seen it as. Raidou and Atsuro's avatar were simpl

y impressed, and Raidou asked her.

"Hey Miss Shiro? You have a way to navigate in this stuff? I can barely see anything."

Naoto frowned at that, she still had her glasses that allowed her to see through the fog, but without her friends Teddie and Rise navigation would be hell.

Thankfully, Atsuro fielded that one (or at least Atsuro's voice from the avatar.) as he had somehow gained means to navigate.

"We've got an exit as well, so no need to worry Nao!"

Atsuro's avatar said in its master's voice, which annoyed Naoto abit.

"While that seems to be good news, I don't recall my name being Nao."

The detective prince retorted, which made the avatar slump in defeat.

"Can it you two! We got a case to solve so let's go!"

Raidou broke their chat up with this, and then he took the lead as they headed to a dungeon.

* * *

"This place….seems to be a bit much."

That's all Raidou could say upon seeing their first dungeon: A pirate ship.

"Indeed, I don't recall seeing a vehicle based dungeon before. Then again, I shouldn't' be surprised.

" Naoto added as she glanced at the ship.

"Bad news guys, we're looking at multiple customers in there. I sense two Reverse Persona users inside."

Atsuro voiced from his avatar, which shocked the other two.

"Two at once? Sounds tough, but if I don't do this Gouto will throw a hissy fit."

Raidou said this as he drew his katana and readied it as he entered the ship. Naoto and the avatar entered with strong nerves, and the goal of solving this

mystery.

**And done! Reviews are welcome, and wanted! Next time, the first dungeon!**


End file.
